Civil society statement on the report launch of the UNSG’s Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals at #COP29

The launch of the report of the UN Secretary General’s Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals marks an important and urgently needed step towards more just and equitable mineral value chains that respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples, workers, and local affected communities. 

Member states should endorse and commit to supporting the panel’s seven Guiding Principles and five Actionable Recommendations. Implementation of the recommendations should deliver mandatory instruments rather than voluntary frameworks, and aim to remove the structural barriers to global justice and equity. 

The UN and other organizations implementing the recommendations should ensure that Indigenous Peoples, other rights holders, civil society actors, local communities, women, youth, and labor unions are a meaningful part of all decision-making processes in the roll-out of the Panel’s recommendations. Crucially and as the Panel stated, this must include better protection of civic space and environmental and anti-corruption defenders. 

To ensure accountability, we call upon the UN Secretary-General to report back on progress made on the implementation of the Panel’s guidance and the execution of its recommendations and to invite all stakeholders to share their assessment of progress made in one year’s time, at COP30. 

Signatories:

Business and Human Rights Resource Centre

Climate Action Network

Climate Rights International

Earthworks

European Environmental Bureau

EU Raw Materials Coalition

Global Witness

Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung e.V.

Human Rights Watch

London Mining Network

NRGI

Publish What You Pay

SIRGE

SOMO

STOP ECOCIDE NL